Amanda Knox Faces Slander Charges for Police Beating Accusation
PERUGIA, Italy (CBS/AP) Amanda Knox, the American student who was convicted in Italy in 2009 for the murder of her roommate Meredith Kercher, could face an additional six years on top of her 25-year sentence if prosecutors are able to prove a slander case against her.
Knox appeared briefly in court Tuesday, the first time the public has seen her since December 2009 when she was taken away in tears and handcuffs after being convicted of the 2007 murder, to face slander charges for saying in court that she was beaten by police while being interrogated.
Police in Perugia, Italy filed charges against Knox after she testified that she had been the subject of a "crescendo" of police pressure and that a policewoman hit her twice on the head. She said that behavior led her to accuse an innocent man - the owner of a pub in Perugia where Knox worked - who was arrested as a result of Knox's statements before being later cleared.
Knox has never been able to identify the officer she says hit her, and at the time of her testimony the prosecutor, Giuliano Mignini, said there was no proof that the abuse took place. Under Italian law a slander conviction can lead to a fine or up to six years in prison.
The 22-year-old Seattle native sported a shorter haircut, prompting some tabloids to proclaim that she was depressed and not faring well under the pressures of prison life, but her stepfather says she's doing fine.
"Amanda is doing pretty good," Knox's stepfather, Chris Mellas, told reporters in Perugia, a hill town in central Italy. "She is looking forward actually to being able once again to put forward her side of the case and kind of defend herself."
Last November, Knox's divorced parents were placed under investigation for repeating their daughter's claim that police officers had beaten her during questioning.
Knox has been jailed since shortly after Kercher's body was found on Nov. 2, 2007, in the house the two students shared.
Her ex-boyfriend and co-defendant at the trial, Raffaele Sollecito of Italy, was also convicted and sentenced to 25 years. A third person, Ivorian Rudy Hermann Guede, was convicted of murder in separate proceedings and sentenced to 16 years.
All three are appealing their convictions.
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